E3 invites now in game companies’ hands

Ever feel like you’ve never been cool enough to enter a club, or that you’re too sober to get into Alcoholics Anonymous? We can tell you right now that the emotional blow is like being hit by lead pipe in the back: excrutiatingly painful but it straightens you out some.

The E3 Media and Business Summit, once proudly seen by fans everywhere as The E3 Gamer’s Gankfest and Freeplay Galore, seems to be firmly in the hands of game makers at large. Doug Lowenstein, President of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), told folks at GameSpot that the ESA will be more hands-off in the invitation process for next year’s event. Instead, the list of people who will get an invitation will be based upon recommendations made by ESA members rather than by the the ESA itself.

What does this mean? In business terms, Lowenstein is quoted by GameSpot as saying, “[T]he point is for attendees to be the people participants want to see in one-on-one meetings…[but] that is not for me to say or influence.” In practical terms, it means that because the members of the ESA is comprised of big-name game and console makers from Activision to Ubisoft (is there a company starting with a “Z” somewhere?), the people who will be visiting the event will either be big names in media, important members of the gaming press, or possibly PR people for the different companies.

Darn.

Guess we’ll just have to visit the other E3 then.

Ever feel like you’ve never been cool enough to enter a club, or that you’re too sober to get into Alcoholics Anonymous? We can tell you right now that the emotional blow is like being hit by lead pipe in the back: excrutiatingly painful but it straightens you out some.

The E3 Media and Business Summit, once proudly seen by fans everywhere as The E3 Gamer’s Gankfest and Freeplay Galore, seems to be firmly in the hands of game makers at large. Doug Lowenstein, President of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), told folks at GameSpot that the ESA will be more hands-off in the invitation process for next year’s event. Instead, the list of people who will get an invitation will be based upon recommendations made by ESA members rather than by the the ESA itself.

What does this mean? In business terms, Lowenstein is quoted by GameSpot as saying, “[T]he point is for attendees to be the people participants want to see in one-on-one meetings…[but] that is not for me to say or influence.” In practical terms, it means that because the members of the ESA is comprised of big-name game and console makers from Activision to Ubisoft (is there a company starting with a “Z” somewhere?), the people who will be visiting the event will either be big names in media, important members of the gaming press, or possibly PR people for the different companies.

Darn.

Guess we’ll just have to visit the other E3 then.